D. S. Friberg Blog

Consulate, Brussels

To establish Vera’s U.S. citizenship, we had to appear with her at the U.S. Consulate in Brussels.  We made applications for a Consular Report of Birth, U.S. passport, and Social Security number.  The whole visit lasted about an hour, and went very smoothly.  Security was tight at the facility, but everyone was friendly, especially the consular that interviewed us, who happened to be a big music lover. 

Before and after Vera’s appointment, we explored Brussels.  Given how close we live – just half an hour by train – we know surprisingly little of Brussels beyond the central tourist area. Katie called it “mini Paris.” It has grand buildings, high-quality museums, and French is the primary spoken language.  At the same time, it is much smaller than Paris, and there is a lot of English on signs, menus, etc. 

We visited the Cathedrale Sts. Michel et Gudule, Brussels most important (though not largest) church.  Afterward, Wes played in the Parc de Bruxelles, located across the street from the Embassy. 

 After the appointment, we had a quick lunch at Panos (an ultra-popular broodje chain), and then a waffle, ice cream, and coffee in the Grand Place. 

Katie played with Wes in a park near the Central Station while I went to Lemca, Belgium’s largest music retailer, to try mouthpieces. Then we went to the Musee Instrumentale, a superb collection of musical instruments housed in a classic Art Nouveau building. Brussels is full of Art Nouveau architecture, and this particular building was built in 1899 to be an “Old England” department store.  It has housed the instrument collection since 2000.  As you move through the museum, you hear musical demos on headphones.  Whenever you stand in front of a display case, you hear a performance on that particular instrument.  This was especially interesting on the world music floor, which presented many sounds that were new to me.  Among the 6,000 instruments in the collection, there is a full set (bari, tenor, alto, soprano) of Adolphe Sax’s saxophone prototypes.  Sax was from Dinant, a French-speaking city in the south of Belgium.  

After the museum, we strolled through a fancy neighborhood called the Sablon and up to the Justice Palace.  We spent some time in a garden, passed a section of the old city wall, and rode a cool outdoor elevator.  Wes was the Energizer Bunny all day, minus a short stroller nap.  Vera, meanwhile, was perfectly content in the Baby Bjorn.

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